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| Duane Lienemann |
UNL Extension Educator,
Webster County
January 18, 2013 Edition
As I write this column I am running off handouts for the Annual Farmers and Ranchers Cow/Calf College that is held at the US-MARC near Clay Center this time each year. The theme, appropriately this year, is “Facing the Drought”. Speakers will undoubtedly give us some ideas for forage, pasture management, etc., all things that are of high importance.
After looking at a couple of bull sale catalogs sitting on my desk it occurs to me that maybe we should look at another factor that may be a tool for consideration. That may be our genetics. With the shortage of grass, hay and other forage resources that we have experienced in 2012, coupled with the potential for even further shortages in 2013 we are going to have to look at how efficiently our cows utilize that feed that is available to them. Feed efficiency is becoming more and more important, as feed costs have skyrocketed and are a major factor in a cattle producer’s ability to be profitable. Feed cost is the single greatest cost for ranchers. If you’re not a cost-effective producer, you’re not going to be in business regardless. But many of those costs you don’t have much control over because of your cow choice and that all starts with genetics.
Perhaps the greatest challenge in seed-stock production is making the best genetic decisions for your herd and environment. There are so many different EPDs in the cattle industry, not only within a single breed, but across breeds. This makes it difficult to sort through all the numbers and know what is best for each producer’s given situation. A commercial cattle rancher has a lot of irons in the fire. They have to manage livestock, grass and people. Producers may only purchase bulls or semen once a year.
Keeping abreast of all the information and technologies is a challenge for all of us. I know that every rancher looks at different things, not only phenotypically, but in the EPD’s of the bulls they are selecting. The chance to improve genetics in your herd should be something that everyone is looking at. Structural soundness is a bare minimum, but after that producers look at benchmarking tools like EPD’s, and more recently new programs like GeneMax or other DNA testing. Things we look at would fall into several categories including: mothering ability and calving ease, growth and carcass quality. Recent trends have included tenderness, stayability, and even demeanor. Of course bulls that are going to have maternal traits would be a big piece of that and that includes milk and marbling. I just read an interesting article that puts EPD’s, genetics, feed efficiency and drought all in the same analysis and it makes sense to me.
In study after study animal scientists and cooperating beef producers have found that their high marbling cattle are the easiest keeping cattle. That tells me that marbling may be a more valuable reproductive trait than it is as a carcass trait, and it ties directly into feed efficiency, which is an important aspect of facing these shrinking feed sources because of the drought and potential drought. I know that a lot of people have selected for milk, which I did with my own Simmental herd, and I always figured there was a correlation between milk and marbling. But now it may be that people like me have been confusing marbling and milk. I know that in looking in these catalogs that there are a lot of high-marbling cattle that are also high milk, which makes it pretty easy to misread which one of those traits is costing you money. Common sense, and my own experience, tells me that high-milk cows are going to be much more expensive to maintain and rebreed. Now studies are showing us that high-marbling cows are the ones that survive in tough times – like under drought conditions.
With that in mind, perhaps during this tough time we maybe ought to look at the trait of marbling, which is a moderately to highly heritable trait (about .40) which means that significant progress can be made by selecting for it within a breed. Most breeds now provide for marbling in their genetic evaluation programs. By selecting sires having marbling EPDs that are well above breed average, a reasonable increase in a herd’s marbling potential can be made. Progress can be especially rapid if one uses highly proven A.I. sires with high marbling EPDs. Percent intramuscular fat, or %IMF, is the common ultrasound term for marbling, but it needs further explanation to fully understand the concept. In short, %IMF is simply an indicator trait for marbling, much like birth weight EPD is an indicator of calving ease. With high marbling EPDs and carcass quality genetics demanding top dollar, it is extremely important we understand what we are buying or using.
I would caution that when selecting for a specific trait such as marbling, it is important to be aware of any economically important traits that may be negatively correlated with it. There is evidence to suggest that extreme single-trait selection for marbling could eventually result in cattle that are lighter muscled, fatter, and have a lower percentage of retail product. This can be avoided by the judicious balancing of marbling with other economically important traits, in other words, the strategic use of EPDs. The good news is that the scientific literature indicates that in general there are no major negatives between marbling and growth traits. It also suggests that marbling may be related to “easier-keeping” cows which would be especially advantageous in those environments where feed resources are limited. For cow-calf or seed stock producers, understanding what this information means and how to effectively use it to make positive genetic change is critically important. Dr. Matt Spangler, UNL Extension Beef Genetics Specialist, has recently recorded a webinar titled “Understanding and Utilizing EPDs in the Selection of Sires” that describes how this information is obtained and clarifies what it means. You can view it by going to https://connect.unl.edu/p53yxcbkv9m/ UNL also has some new NebGuides that explain EPDs that you can get in your local extension office. Take a good look at those catalogs and… Good bull hunting!
The preceding information comes from the research and personal observations of the writer which may or may not reflect the views of UNL or UNL Extension. For more further information on these or other topics contact D. A. Lienemann, UNL Extension Educator for Webster County in Red Cloud, (402) 746-3417 or email to: dlienemann2@unl.edu or go to the website at: http://www.webster.unl.edu/home
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